Obama: It is our duty to prevent another Holocaust

President Barack Obama paid tribute Thursday to the memory of Jews murdered in the Holocaust and said it is the duty of the living all over the world to end such atrocities forever.

Speaking at a Holocaust Days of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, Obama warned against what he called the dangers of silence.

"Every day," he said, "people should resist the urge to turn away when scenes of horror unfold across the world and fight the impulse to turn the channel when we see images that disturb us or wrap ourselves in the false comfort that others' sufferings are not our own."

The president also urged people to make a habit of empathy, "to recognize ourselves in each other."

Obama noted that the risk of genocide has not been eliminated since about 6 million Jews were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. Many were gassed in death camps, while others were killed en masse in other ways, including shooting and starvation.

"We've seen it, in this century, in the mass graves and the ashes of villages burned to the ground and children used as soldiers and rape used as a weapon of war," he said.

Without naming names, Obama noted that some still deny the Holocaust. At the same time, he said apathy in the face of this mindset must be fought at all times.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently caused a stir at a UN conference by accusing Israel of being a racist nation. Earlier in Thursday's ceremony, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel noted his disgust with Ahmadinejad's comments and thanked the Obama administration for boycotting the conference.

Obama called it a grim irony that modern tools were used by the Nazis for barbaric savagery: "Science that can heal, used to kill. Education that can enlighten, used to rationalize away basic moral impulses."

Obama said part of the responsibility for the Holocaust rests with people who accepted the assigned role of bystander.

He paid tribute to those who risked their safety to help those targeted by the Nazis escape, including five rescuers from Poland who participated in a candle-lighting ceremony Thursday.

"They remind us that no one is born a savior or a murderer," he said. "They teach us that no one can make us into bystanders without our consent, and that we are never truly alone."

He also cited stories of hope, in places from Northern Ireland to Rwanda, where vicious conflict has given way to forgiveness.

"Our fellow citizens of the world, showing us how to make the journey from oppression to survival, from witness to resistance, and ultimately to reconciliation," Obama noted. "That is what we mean when we say, 'Never again.'"